Download This PaperSleeping Giant?: Section Two of the Thirteenth Amendment, Hate Crimes Legislation, and Academia's Favorite New Vehicle for the Expansion of Federal Power
Engage: Volume 13, Issue 3
10 Pages Posted: 29 Dec 2016
Date Written: October 2012
Abstract
This article examines Congress’s authority to enact legislation pursuant to its powers under Section Two of the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude. Does that power enable Congress enact 18 U.S.C. § 249(1), which criminalizes certain violent crimes committed “because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion or national origin” of the victim or of some other person? Or must Congress’s authority to pass such legislation derive from some other part of the Constitution?
Keywords: Hate Crimes, 13th Amendment, Congress, badges and incidents, race
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Heriot, Gail L. and Somin, Alison, Sleeping Giant?: Section Two of the Thirteenth Amendment, Hate Crimes Legislation, and Academia's Favorite New Vehicle for the Expansion of Federal Power (October 2012). Engage: Volume 13, Issue 3
, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891118
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